Attachment for telephone

ABSTRACT

According to one aspect of the present invention a pedestal attachment is provided which includes a clip adapted to engage under the pedestal bridge to hold the attachment on the pedestal. The clip depends downwardly from a bottom wall which terminates at its rearward extremity in a low upright rear wall and a twopiece lid extends forwardly from a first hinge at the top of the rear wall. The lid includes a short rearward portion hingeably attached to a forward portion by a second hinge which is parallel to the first hinge. A pair of projections depend downwardly from the rearward portion for locking engagement in openings defined in the bottom wall. Pages having corresponding openings are held in the attachment by inserting the projections through the page openings.

United States Patent 91 Babensee [451 Apr. 23, 1974 ATTACHMENT FORTELEPHONE [22] Filed: July 17, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 272,543

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,084,473 4/1963 Castro....281/15 B 1,848,240 3/1932 Boehler 281/15 B 3,469,336 9/1969 Halperin40/336 2,408,194 9/1946 Bourdius 40/336 X 3,410,513 11/1968 WOlf 40/336X Primary ExaminerR0bert W. Michell Assistant ExaminerVance Y. Hum

[ 5 7] ABSTRACT According to one aspect of the present invention apedestal attachment is provided which includes a clip adapted to engageunder the pedestal bridge to hold the attachment on the pedestal. Theclip depends downwardly from a bottom wall which terminates at itsrearward extremity in a low upright rear wall and a twopiece lid extendsforwardly from a first hinge at the top of the rear wall. The lidincludes a short rearward portion hingeably attached to a forwardportion by a second hinge which is parallel to the first hinge. A pairof projections depend downwardly from the rearward portion for lockingengagement in openings defined in the bottom wall. Pages havingcorresponding openings are held in the attachment by inserting theprojections through the page openings.

3 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures ATTACHMENT FOR TELEPHONE This inventionrelates to an attachment for use on a telephone pedestal under thehandset, the attachment including reference pages and being accessibleupon lifting the handset off the pedestal.

Free-standing telephones have a pedestal and a handset which can beplaced in a pair of saddles on the pedestal when not in use. A bridgebetween the saddles defines a rearwardly opening recess below thesaddles to permit a person to insert his fingers in the recess whenlifting the pedestal. A number of devices have been provided which fitinto this recess to support pages of a memorandum pad, calendar or thelike so that the user can refer to the pad as he uses the telephone. However, these devices have been unsatisfactory because they tended to fallof the telephone, and also because they prevented the user frominserting hi's fingers into the recess to lift the telephone.

According to one aspect of the present invention a pedestal attachmentis provided which includes a clip adapted to engage under the pedestalbridge to hold the attachment on the pedestal. The clip dependsdownwardly from a bottom wall which terminates at its rearward extremityin a low upright rear wall and a twopiece lid extends forwardly from afirst hinge at the top of the rear wall. The lid includes a shortrearward portion hingeably attached to a forward portion by a secondhinge which is parallel to the first hinge. A pair of projections dependdownwardly from the rearward portion for locking engagement in openingsdefined in the bottom wall. Pages having corresponding openings are heldin the attachment by inserting the projections through the pageopenings.

According to another aspect of the invention a pedestal attachment isprovided which can be engaged on the bridge of a telephone pedestalwhether or not the bridge includes an upwardly inclined forward portion.

According to yet another aspect of the invention an attachment fortelephone pedestals is provided which includes a clip having an outerwall adapted to receive a double-sided adhesive pad for adhesiveattachment to a wall mounted telephone and the like.

These and other aspects of the invention will be better understood withreference to the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a telephone pedestal showing anattachment according to the invention in place of the pedestal;

FIG. 2 is a side view of the attachment;

FIG. 3 is a rear perspective view of the attachment showing theunderside of the attachment;

FIG. 4 is detail of part of the attachment; and

FIGS. 5 and 6 show the attachment in place on two different telephonepedestals.

Reference is first made to FIG. 1 which shows a conventionalfree-standing telephone pedestal 10 having saddles l2, 14 for receivinga handset (not shown). An attachment 16 is proportioned to fit snuglybetweenthe saddles 12, 14 and extends rearwardly to just within therearward limits of the saddles. The front of the attachment 16 extendsslightly beyond the front limits of the saddles to a position whichfacilitates using the attachment without interfering with either thesaddles or the telephone dial 17. The top of the attachment is slightlybelow respective handset support surfaces 20,

22 of saddles 12, 14 so that the handset will rest on the surfaces 20,22 rather than on the attachment 16. Al-

though it is not evident in FIG. 1, the attachment contains pages fordisplaying advertising, calendars, note pages and the like. Thestructure of the attachment will be described with reference to FIGS. 2,3 and 4 and then the pages will be introduced with reference to FIG. 5.

Reference is next made to FIGS. 2 and 3 which show the attachmentwithout the aforesaid pages in a closed position. This portion oftheattachment is moulded from a suitable plastic such aspolyvinylchloride and includes a bottom wall 18 having a generallyhorizontal main portion 20 and an upwardly inclined forward portion 22.A clip 24 is dependent downwardly from the bottom surface of the mainportion 20 for releasably coupling the attachment to the telephonepedestal 10 (FIG. 1) as will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 and6. A rear wall 26 extends upwardly from the rearward extremity of thebottom wall 18 and is connected by an integral hinge 27 to the rearwardextremity of a two-part lid 28. The lid includes a short rearwardportion 30 which is connected by an integral hinge 32 to a forwardportion 34 of the lid 28. This hinge is weakened by an opening 33 alongthe hinge line to facilitate moving the forward portion 20 about thishinge.

Forward portion 34 is curved upwardly adjacent its forward end to matchthe shape of the bottom wall 18. Lid 28 terminates at its forwardextremity adjacent a pair of latch elements 36, 38 which are integrallyattached to the bottom wall 18 and depend upwardly therefrom. Latchelement 36 which is typical of both elements is shown in FIG. 4. Theupward extremity of element 36 includes a small inwardly-facing bead 40which snaps over the side of the forward piston 34 of the lid 28adjacent the forward extremity of the portion 34. A recess 42 ispreferably formed in the side of the portion 34 to accommodate thethickness of the latch element 36 when the attachment is in the closedposition shown in FIGS. 2 and 3.

The rearward portion 30 of the two-part lid 28 includes a pair ofdownwardly dependent projections 44, 46 each of which has an enlargeddistal end for locking engagement on the underside of the bottom wall18. A pair of openings are provided in the bottom wall for engagement bythese projections. Once the projections are in place in the bottom wall,the rearward portion 30 of the two part lid 28 is immobilized and uponopening the lid, the forward portion 34 pivots about hinge 32. Thearrangement of hinges 27, 32 permits the attachment to be moulded andthen assembled using only th projection 44 as will be described. 7

The clip 24 is of a relatively rigid construction for positiveengagement on a telephone pedestal as will be described with referenceto FIGS. 5 and 6. The clip 24 includes a pair of forwardly extending andparallel side walls 48, 50 which are attached to an outer wall 52, andthese walls terminate at their forward extremities in a front wall 54. Apair of curved flanges 56, 58 depend transversely from respective sidewalls 48, 50 and a pair of locating ears 60, 62 project upwardly beyondthe outer wall 52. These ears are integrally attached to the side walls48, 50 and to the curved flanges 56, 58 to strengthen the clip in theregion of the flanges 56, 58 and to locate a double-sided adhesive pad64 on the outer wall 52. This pad can be used to adhere the attachmentto a wall, wall mounted telephone and the like.

The curved flanges 56, 58 are integrally connected to the bottom wall 18and terminate remote from the wall for simplied moulding. It will beevident that because the clip is attached to the wall 18 both byrearward portions of the side walls 48, 50 and also by the flanges 56,58, the clip is a relatively rigid structure.

A peripheral flange 66 extends across the upper portion of the frontwall 54 and rearwardly along upper extremities of the side walls 48, 50terminating at respective locking lugs 68, 70 adapted to lock theattachment to a telephone pedestal as will be described with referenceto FIGS. 5 and 6. The flange 66 is tapered upwardly where it adjoinsfront wall 54 to facilitate engaging the attachment on a telephonepedestal.

Reference is next made to FIG. 5 which shows the attachment 16 in placeon the pedestal 10. As seen in this view, the pedestal includes a bridge72 extending transverselybetween the saddles 12, 14 (FIG. 1) and havinga rearward transversely extending rib 74.

The previously described curved flanges 56, 58 are proportioned forlocating engagement about the rib 74 with the lugs 68, 70 engagedagainst a forward extremity of the rib. Because peripheral flange 66 iscurved upwardly at its forward extremity, the attachment can be engagedon the bridge 72 by pushing the attachment forwardly so that the flange66 rides in the bridge and the clip and bottom wall separate to snap theclip over the rib 74. Once in place as shown in FIG. 5, the forwardextremity of the clip is sufficiently removed from the rib 74 to ensureadequate gripping of the bridge 72. In the event 'that a person usingthe attachment tends to rotate the attachment in a clockwise direction(with reference to FIG. 5) the forward extremity of the clip will causethe point of rotation to be at the front of the clip thereby limitingthe possibility that the clip can be rotated off the bridge 72.

As seen in FIG. 5, pages 76 are included in the attachment and held inplace between the bottom wall 18 and lid 28 by the projections 44, 46which pass through openings prepared in the pages 76. The attachment isassembled by first positioning the pages on bottom wall 18 with holes inthe pages in registration with corresponding openings in the wall 18 forreceiving projections 44, 46. The lid 28 is then folded downwardly abouthinge 27 to engage the projections 44, 46 through the pages and into thebottom wall 20. Assembly is completed by closing the lid over the latchelements 36, 38.

Lid 28 can be opened by simply forcing it upwardly out of engagementwith the latch elements 36, 38, and closed by moving the lid downwardlyto engage these latch elements. The form of the attachment is such thata telephone handset placed on the pedestal 10 will not contact theattachment 16. Also, once the handset is lifted off the pedestal 10, theattachment is readily accessible for reference to the pages.

Reference is next made to FIG. 6 which shows the attachment l6releasably coupled to another type of telephone pedestal 78. Thispedestal, together with the pedestal l0 constitute by far the major partof the telephone production of North America. The present attachment canbe fitted on both pedestals.

The pedestal 78 includes a bridge 80 similar to the bridge 72 previouslydescribed. However, unlike the bridge 72, the bridge 80 dependsrearwardly from an inclined portion 82 which extends forwardly andupwardly. Also, a rib 84 at the rearward extremity of the bridge 80 ismuch smaller than the rib 74 of bridge 72. The attachment 16 is shapedto fit on the bridge 80 with the forward portion 22 of the bottom wall20 snugly engaged against the inclined portion 82 of the pedestal 78.The lugs 68, are proportioned to engage against the rib 84 so thatalthough thisrib is much smaller than rib 74, the clip neverthelessgrips-the bridge firmly to locate the attachment l6 on the pedestal 78;

What I claim as my invention is:

1. An attachment for a telephone of the type having a pedestal and ahandset, the pedestal including a pair.

of spaced-apart saddles each of which has a support surface forsupporting the handset when the telephone is not in use, a bridgeextending between the saddles below the support surfaces and defining adownwardlyextending rib at the rear thereof, the attachment comprising:

a bottom wall having a rear end, and in which a pair of openings areformed adjacent said rear end;

a low rear wall extending upwardly from said rear end of the bottom walland integrally attached thereto;

a lid extending forwardly;

a first hinge coupling a rear end of the lid integrally to the upperextremity of the rear wall;

the lid including a short rearward portion, a longer forward portion anda secondv hinge joining the rearward portion to the forward portion, thesecond hinge being parallel to the first hinge, the lid furthercomprising a pair of projections downwardly dependent from the rearwardportion and projecting through said openings in the bottom wall, theprojections including enlarged distal ends in engagement with the bottomwall to retain the lid rearward portion in generally parallelrelationship with the bottom wall; 7

pages positioned between the bottom wall and the lid and having openingstherethrough, the projections passing through the openings in the pagesto retain the pages in position, the pages being accessible by rotatingthe lid forward portion upwardly about the second hinge; and

a clip downwardly dependent from the bottom wall and adapted tolockingly engage the pedestal bridge with the clip located on the bridgerib, the attachment being proportioned such that when in place on thepedestal the attachment fits snugly between the saddles and below thehandset support surfaces with the front of the lid positioned adjacentthe telephonedial.

2. An attachment as claimed in claim 1 in which the lid forward portionand bottom wall include upwardly and forwardly inclined portions tofacilitate positioning the attachment on a pedestal bridge of the typehaving a corresponding upwardly and forwardly inclined portion.

3. An attachment as claimed in claim.l in which the bottom wall includesa pair of latch elements extending upwardly from sides of the bottomwall adjacent a forward end of the bottom wall, the latch elements beingadapted to retain the lid in a closed position and being sufficientlyresilient to permit opening the lid by applying an upward force to thelid.

1. An attachment for a telephone of the type having a pedestal and ahandset, the pedestal including a pair of spaced-apart saddles each ofwhich has a support surface for supporting the handset when thetelephone is not in use, a bridge extending between the saddles belowthe support surfaces and defining a downwardly-extending rib at the rearthereof, the attachment comprising: a bottom wall having a rear end, andin which a pair of openings are formed adjacent said rear end; a lowrear wall extending upwardly from said rear end of the bottom wall andintegrally attached thereto; a lid extending forwardly; a first hingecoupling a rear end of the lid integrally to the upper extremity of therear wall; the lid including a short rearward portion, a longer forwardportion and a second hinge joining the rearward portion to the forwardportion, the second hinge being parallel to the first hinge, the lidfurther comprising a pair of projections downwardly dependent from therearward portion and projecting through said openings in the bottomwall, the projections including enlarged distal ends in engagement withthe bottom wall to retain the lid rearward portion in generally parallelrelationship with the bottom wall; pages positioned between the bottomwall and the lid and having openings therethrough, the projectionspassing through the openings in the pages to retain the pages inposition, the pages being accessible by rotating the lid forward portionupwardly about the second hinge; and a clip downwardly dependent fromthe bottom wall and adapted to lockingly engage the pedestal bridge withthe clip located on the bridge rib, the attachment being proportionedsuch that when in place on the pedestal the attachment fits snuglybetween the saddles and below the handset support surfaces with thefront of the lid positioned adjacent the telephone dial.
 2. Anattachment as claimed in claim 1 in which the lid forward portion andbottom wall include upwardly and forwardly inclined portions tofacilitate positioning the attachment on a pedestal bridge of the typehaving a corresponding upwardly and forwardly inclined portion.
 3. Anattachment as claimed in claim 1 in which the bottom wall includes apair of latch elements extending upwardly from sides of the bottom walladjacent a forward end of the bottom wall, the latch elements beingadapted to retain the lid in a closed position and being sufficientlyresilient to permit opening the lid by applying an upward force to thelid.